More Liberty Nowhttp://morelibertynow.com
by George DonnellyThu, 01 Sep 2016 21:02:04 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.182023153WeWontFlyhttps://feedburner.google.comEverything you Need to Get Started Fast with Steemit, Social Media that Payshttp://morelibertynow.com/steem/
Tue, 23 Aug 2016 20:23:27 +0000http://morelibertynow.com/?p=9153A complete tutorial for getting started understanding and participating in Steemit, in 47 minutes or less. Steemit is a social crypto-economy that pays you to create and upvote content.

Get Paid to Create Content

When you post to social media — such as Facebook, Reddit, Google+ and Twitter — when you upvote, like and favorite, you do not get paid. But that’s about to change.

Steemit is a blogging-centric social network where you DO get paid for creating and upvoting content. You can build a following, find patrons and grow your wealth, all while doing the thing you love: creating valuable content.

Take note: Steemit is not some fly-by-night Ponzi scheme. Steemit is about building a community of high-quality people and financing the production of the highest quality content.

Steemit requires no initial investment in order to participate. It’s free to use and you’re not spending your own money when you upvote content you like.

Steemit is just the first minimum viable product on Steem, a blockchain-based social economy. The Steem developers have bootstrapped an entire economy, complete with its own crypto-currencies. Steem is peer-to-peer, decentralized, uncensorable and therefore unstoppable.

So it’s a good idea for you get started with Steemit — and Steem — now.

Steemit is good for redditors, Facebook users, bloggers, videographers, teachers, YouTubers, artists, film-makers — anyone who is creating content and would like to be paid (more) for it. The Steemit community is supportive, helpful and constructive.

Do you want to work with intelligent, positive people who are building something meaningful for the future? Yes? Then Steemit is for you.

If you’re seeking a short-term payoff with low-quality content that you slap together with little effort, Steemit is not for you. You will be downvoted, ignored and frustrated. Your reputation will not grow and will likely decline. You will not earn any significant amount of money. You’ll be wasting your time.

You can earn a short-term payoff with quality content. Many people have already done this. But Steemit offers greater rewards to those with a long-term perspective.

There are also opportunities for developers to build apps rapidly on the Steem blockchain.

By the end of this post, you will know enough about Steemit to get started earning cryptocurrency — currency, like Bitcoin, that you can convert into US dollars, and other fiat currency, and spend on groceries, rent, travel and more.

The Steem system has a lot of moving parts, so keep reading to get a head start. It’s taken me several weeks to research this, get familiar with the community and to put it all into this easy-to-read guide you can master in less than an hour.

The Steem system is evolving to better meet the needs of its users and the goals of its developers. You can get infrequent email updates from the author (George Donnelly) by entering your primary email address here. There’s zero spam and an instant unsubscribe link is in every email.

Why Steemit Matters

Why is Steemit important? What can Steemit do for me? Great question!

Steemit is like Reddit or Medium, but you can earn equity and cash, and hold debt (thus earning interest), through your interactions with the system.

Steemit enables you to earn cryptocurrency by creating content, curating it, mining, trading and even just by holding two of its three currencies.

Steemit has the potential to handle many times the traffic of Reddit, a popular site for unbridled discussion that has, in recent years, seen significant censorship.

Steemit is resistant to nation-state and corporate censorship because it’s built on distributed ledger technology (DLT, or a blockchain). Like Bitcoin, it will be very hard to shut down or disrupt for any significant amount of time.

Steemit is meritocratic. The more you invest — either by investing your earnings or by bringing in outside investment — the more powerful your upvote is, and the more you can earn from upvoting and creating content. No investment is required, however, in order to use, or even succeed with, Steemit.

The more quality content you post, either as blog posts or comments on blog posts, the more followers you will gain, the higher your reputation score will go and the more rewards you will earn.

You might make hundreds of dollars from your introduction post alone. And I can help you do it.

Steem is also a solution to the micropayments problem because there are no transaction fees on the Steem network.

Start today (August 2016) and get about USD$5 worth of Steem cryptocurrency free. Unlike with other cryptocurrencies, you don’t have to spend your own money to get started.

But don’t wait. This could change.

What Steemit is

Steemit markets itself as a blockchain-based social media network and it’s built on top of Steem, a complete, decentralized social crypto-economy.

Steemit is built on the Steem blockchain— this is similar to the Bitcoin blockchain, but is separate from it. Another name for blockchains is distributed ledger technology (DLT). This means that it’s a distributed database — lots of people hold copies of it that talk to each other in order to stay up to date. Records are added to the blockchain in sequential order. These records, or blocks, once added to the database, or chain, can not be changed. They are immutable — read-only.

Steem is peer-to-peer. There is no central control. The developers, however, maintain huge influence over Steem’s course.

Steem is like Bitcoin, Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies, but is actually a lot more.

This is unique. And it opens up a lot of possibilities for you to earn cryptocurrency, most notably through content creation and curation.

Three Steem Currencies

Before you can earn Steem currency, you need to know how Steem’s three cryptocurrencies work: STEEM, Steem Power and Steam Dollars.

STEEM

STEEM is the fundamental currency of the system. It’s volatile, subject to inflationary losses (its supply increases 100% per year) but also easily exchangeable for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies at BlockTrades, Bittrex and OpenLedger.

STEEM is an ownership token but is only votable when vested as the second currency — Steem Power — in a process called powering up (see below).

STEEM can also be converted (see the section on converting currencies below) into Steem Dollars (see below).

Steem Power

Steem Power (SP) is STEEM that has been invested into the network as equity (a process called powering up). It can be converted back to STEEM (a process called powering down) in 104 equal installments disbursed once per week.

This rate-limiting of SP withdrawals incentivizes you to develop a long-term perspective for your participation in the Steem network. It also serves as protection against hackers.

One-STEEM (vested as SP) is essentially one-vote. Those who contribute the most get to decide which content is to be valued more highly.

The upvotes (and flags) (see content curation below) of users with a lot of SP are worth more than those of users with relatively little SP, so this is not a democratic system but a meritocratic one. In fact, those with zero SP can not vote at all.

This creates an incentive to use your upvote in a way that “maximizes the long term value of” your STEEM, according to the Steem white paper (PDF).

Ninety percent of new STEEM created (via inflation) is distributed on a constant basis pro-rata to holders of SP. This is a powerful incentive to convert your Steem Dollar earnings to STEEM and power them up to Steem Power — if you believe in the long-term viability of the Steem network.

Thus, users with a long-term vision are rewarded more than those with a short-term perspective.

The other roughly 10% of STEEM that is created via inflation is distributed as rewards and thus changes the ownership distribution of the network — albeit very slowly.

SP holdings are thus not subject to inflation, for the most part, because SP is constantly earning interest in the form of that 90% of newly created STEEM.

Steem Dollars

Steem Dollars (abbreviated as SMD, SD or SBD) are conceived of as short-term debt instruments that are pegged 1:1 with the US Dollar.

By holding SMD you are “effectively lending the community the value of a dollar,” which enhances growth, according to the white paper. So SMD pays 10% annual interest when the value of 1 SMD is under $1 USD. Check the current market price at SteemDollar.com.

For every SMD created, $19 USD worth of STEEM is created as Steem Power, so the maximum debt-to-ownership ratio of the Steem network is about 5%. This could increase if the value of STEEM falls in the marketplace but should not be a major concern.

How Steem Works

Steem is a complex system with a lot of moving parts. I’ll give you an overview of the most important ones for new users and cover more advanced topics in a second article.

Your first window into the Steem system is going to be Steemit.com, a website reminiscent of Medium.com but named after Reddit.com.

Steemit is just one interface for transacting with the Steem blockchain. There are others and might even be better ones in the future. There will be more applications built on the Steem blockchain in the future, too, including a Twitter-like app that’s currently in alpha.

So stay agile and stay in touch so I can keep you apprised. Subscribe to my exclusive mailing list for Steem news. Click here to sign up.

Create your Account

Visit Steemit.com and click “Sign Up” at top right to register an account. At this time, you’ll need to either have a Facebook account or a Reddit account with positive karma. If you have neither, you can sign up to be notified when SMS verifications will be enabled.

You’ll need to authenticate with Facebook or Reddit, depending on which one you chose.

Then it will redirect you to the Sign Up screen.

Pick an account name (username) you’ll be happy with indefinitely because you can’t change it.

Create a strong, 16-character or longer password or accept the one suggested by the system. Whatever you do though, save that password in a permanent and safe place. Store it in an encrypted file on your computer, then back it up. Write it down on paper and stick it in a safe. Laser engrave it onto some carbon nanotubes. I can’t stress this enough. That password grants access to your Steem cryptocurrency wallet and, in the future, the entire ecosystem of Steem apps.

Click “Create Account” and you will be redirected to your Blog page. You’re good to go.

Content Curation

Content curation refers to your ability to upvote and flag (due to abuse) content on the Steem network. Content curation doesn’t pay a lot but it’s a good way to get started while you’re learning about Steem and the members of the Steem community.

You’re now signed in to Steemit.com (and, therefore, the Steem network). At top left, you’ll see the word “trending” and a down arrow. Click that and you’ll see there are 7 different views you can select from to filter new content.

Hot: posts that are popular right now. These are a good opportunity to comment and vote.

Trending: the most popular posts of the last 30 days.

Payout Time: posts whose rewards are about to be paid. Your votes and comments will pay little here, but the payout will come fast.

New: brand-new posts created moments ago. Separate the wheat from the chaff, vote up and comment on the wheat and you can maximize your rewards.

Active: posts that are recently edited or commented on. This is a good place to gain visibility and make new connections with your comment.

Responses: posts with the highest comment count over the last 30 days.

Popular: posts with the highest number of upvotes over the last 30 days.

You can also search for content by clicking the magnifying glass at the top of Steemit.com. At present, this is just a Google search.

Voting

If you think a blog post is useful, upvote it at the bottom of the post by clicking the up arrow. If you think it’s abusive, hit the flag at top right. Your votes are public information — they’re permanently recorded on the Steem blockchain.

But don’t worry! When you upvote someone, you’re not spending your own money. When curating (upvoting and flagging) you’re actually getting paid by the Steem system (with newly minted crypto-currency) to decide who should be paid. Curation rewards are paid solely in Steem Power.

To get the maximum bang for vote, vote on exactly 20 posts per 24 hours — because each vote up to 20 leverages up to 5% of your SP. Anything more than that and the power of your votes (and your earnings) decline exponentially.

Note that your vote’s power declines after each vote. So don’t cast a lot of votes all at once. Spread them out. You can check your current voting power at Steemd.com/@YOUR-USERNAME. In the left-hand column, look for “Voting power.” The closer the number is to 100%, the greater the power remaining in your next vote.

Upvotes on content that has already reached its first payout (see below, approximately 24 hours after publication, sometimes longer) still pay the author but pay you zero curation rewards.

I can not overestimate the importance of good, productive behavior on the Steem network. It’s still small. Powerful (high-SP) users — known as whales and dolphins (see below) — are paying attention. You will not gain their support (upvotes) if you engage in non-constructive behaviors.

Be discriminating. Only upvote quality content that you yourself have evaluated. Consider the interests and culture of the platform.

Content Creation

Content creation includes both top-level blog posts and comments on those posts. Create posts that people like and they may upvote you. Get enough upvotes from people who are holding Steem Power and you will earn cryptocurrency.

Engage in abuse (a fuzzy concept, the definition of which is still evolving) and your post will be hidden. Your reputation (see below) may also be affected.

To create a blog post, click “Submit a Story” at top right on Steemit.com. Top-level posts have a title, body and up to 5 tags. The title can be no more than 255 characters long. You can use Markdown formatting (very simple and easy to learn) on the body and there is now a WYSIWYG editor you can enable by clicking the word “Editor” between the title and body text boxes.

Tags are an important part of every post because they enable new readers to find you. Here’s an interesting analysis of the top-paying tags on the network. The most popular tags are also on the right side of the home page at Steemit.com. You can use up to 5 tags per post and at most two hyphens per tag.

Definitely leave the little checkbox marked “Upvote post” in its default checked position. It won’t give you much of a boost in the beginning but you need to get the upvotes started somehow.

Plagiarism is not tolerated in the Steem community. In fact, there is a bot that actively checks for it.

The Payout Number

Don’t get too attached to the payout number in US dollars at the bottom of your posts next to the upvote button until the payout closes. Click on the down arrow next to the number and you’ll see that the number is only the potential payout. Clicking on that arrow will also tell you how long it is until your payout closes and is disbursed to your wallet.

Both of these numbers — the payout amount and time to payout — can change for a number of reasons. The amount usually declines slightly before payout as rewards are calculated and set. A fixed amount of currency is awarded in each 24-hour period and, as new content receives upvotes, your share of that fixed pot can decline before payout time arrives. The payout amount also fluctuates with the market value of STEEM.

The payout time often extends a few hours if your post is receiving new upvotes. This happens in order to give you more time to collect those upvotes. Don’t worry about it. You’re here for the long-term, not just for a few dollars in a few hours — though that sounds pretty good, doesn’t it?

Multimedia

To embed images, open an account at STEEMIMG.com. Upload your photo. After the upload is complete, find “Embed codes” under the image preview. Find the section marked “Full image” then, under that, “Markdown.” Mouseover that text box and, on the right, the word “COPY” will appear. Click on that. It adds the embed code to your clipboard. Now go back to the blog post submission page on Steemit.com and paste the code where you want the image to go.

To embed a YouTube video, just post its URL (not an embed code) into the body where you want it to appear.

Steemit.com will grab the first image in the body and use it as your thumbnail in the content listings on the front page of Steemit.com and elsewhere. So make sure your blog post includes at least one image.

The system will not see a YouTube embed as an image and will not pull its thumbnail to use as your blog post’s thumbnail. So be sure to include your own image(s) in the post.

There is a 20-minute buffer between blog posts so try to spread out your posts throughout the day.

Before posting, see the section below titled “What Kind of Content Should I Post?” Don’t rush to post!

Series

If you’re doing a series of posts on a particular topic, you might create a unique tag and add it to each post in the series. For example, I’m using morelibertynow for my More Liberty Now series, posidose for my Posidose series and coup-conspiracy for my serial dystopian science fiction story, The Coup Conspiracy.

4 Blog Posts per 24 Hours

Limit your blog posts to just 4 per 24-hour period to maximize your rewards. Post more than 4 in any 24-hour period and your reward will be “taxed” — your fifth post will earn less than 100% of its content rewards, your sixth even less, etc. Quickly check your limit status at SteemDollar.com.

Comments

Comments, or posts, only have a body and you can also use Markdown to format them. Post as many as you like but make sure they are useful and substantial. Posts that add nothing to the conversation, such as “Good job!” can, like wanton curation, impact your reputation and chances for success.

Note that a twenty second buffer between comments is enforced. Don’t post comments too quickly.

Comments are a great way to build connection with other users. Find a dozen users you wish to connect with and leave useful comments on their posts.

Make a habit of responding to as many of the comments on your blog posts as you think merit further discussion. This keeps your blog post in the active list for longer and thus gives you a chance at greater content creation rewards. Just make sure each comment is substantial.

Editing of your posts (both comments and blog posts) closes after the first payout (usually 24 hours after publishing). Keep in mind that your comments, like your blog posts, are on the Steem blockchain. Every revision you make is stored and will be there forever. They can not be deleted.

You can see the feed of your comments at a glance on your profile page by clicking on the “Comments” tab. See replies to your comments and blog posts by clicking on the “Replies” tab.

Content & Curation Rewards

Blog post rewards are paid out twice, once a stake-weighted 24 hours after your post is published and again 30 days later. After that, no more rewards are paid on the content, under the current system.

Post rewards are paid out half in Steem Dollars and half in Steem Power.

“Stake-weighted 24 hours” means that the expected 24-hour payment window can be extended if high-SP users (whales) upvote you, thus giving other users time to negate the whales’ votes, in case they constitute abuse. Payout time can even be extended by upvotes on comments to your blog post.

Curation rewards are paid at the same time as blog post rewards. You can maximize your curation rewards by voting on posts you think others will also vote for (before they actually vote for them), voting early, not voting on content that is already at the top of the charts and by increasing your Steem Power.

Note that within the first 30 minutes that a blog post is published, your curation rewards are shared with the author. Upvote immediately after publication, and 99.94% of your curation reward goes to the blog post author, not you. This percentage declines with time. At 15 minutes after publication, you get 50%. At 30 minutes, you get 100%.

Curation rewards are assigned using a reverse auction though, so the earlier you vote, the higher the reward you get. You’ll need a strategy in order to regularly profit from curation. This system is in place to prevent curation bots from gaining an unfair advantage.

Patrons

There is an incentive in the system for whales (high-SP users) to identify the best content as early as possible after publication. This could lead to whales effectively becoming patrons to content creators who regularly create valued content.

So make an effort to produce quality content (well-written, spell-checked, well-formatted, well-titled, highly-conceptualized and with multimedia embeds) that pleases whales and you may find yourself regularly upvoted by those users whose upvotes are worth the most to you.

If you don’t have significant SP holdings (that makes you a minnow, see below), then you won’t earn any significant return for your curation activities. But you can play the role of a trendsetter by discovering the best content first. Whales may follow your lead. And you can earn content rewards by writing up your experiences as blog posts.

Where to Find your Rewards

You can find a log of your content creation and curation rewards by visiting your profile page (Steemit.com/@YOUR-USERNAME). Next to where it says “Blog Comments Replies Feed,” is “Rewards.” Click on it and select from “Curation Rewards” and “Author Rewards.”

“Curation Rewards” will show you the history of how much SP you earned for each individual vote, as well as other information.

“Author Rewards” will show you the same information but for your blog posts.

The Future

Some further notes of interest include:

If Steem reaches the size of Bitcoin, the market for content creation and curation would be USD $1.75 million per day, according to the Steem white paper.

The most popular content tends to run away with the greatest rewards. This is, by design, like a casino or lottery (in the sense of magnificent rewards for a few but not in the sense of being random), in order to incentivize people to put their maximum amount of work into the community. Content consumers benefit the most.

The amount of content and curation rewards does not change over time in absolute terms, so the quality of content will need to improve over time in order to continue earning similar rewards. This is a powerful incentive to meet the needs of curators.

Following

You can build your own community on Steem by following other users and being followed in return, just like on Twitter.

When you find a user you wish to follow, go to their profile page (takes the form of steemit.com/@USERNAME) and click on the FOLLOW button at top right. Or, click their username at the bottom of any blog post or comment and the same FOLLOW button pops up.

See the post feed of those you’re following in the user menu at the top right of every Steemit.com page. Click on the person icon and a menu pops up. Select “Feed” and click on it.

Next to the FOLLOW button is the MUTE button. Mute users whom you don’t want to hear from.

To manage your followers, go to your profile page at Steemit.com/@YOUR-USERNAME and click below your name where it says “XX followers” or “XX followed.”

On the Followed page, you can see who you are following.

On the Followers page, you can see who is following you. Go through the list and follow people back, if you wish.

Reputation

Reputation is the number in parentheses next to your username at the top of your profile pages. You can increase your reputation by getting upvotes on your content from other users who have positive reputation numbers.

The highest reputation on Steemit right now belongs to @stellabelle and is 72. You might start with a reputation in the 20’s.

Get flagged — especially by a user with high-SP (a whale) — and your reputation can decrease — even to a negative number. Let your reputation fall too low and your posts will be automatically hidden from other users.

Reputation is not directly linked to your Steem cryptocurrency holdings. It’s a separate metric from the one that determines the power of your upvotes (Steem Power).

Keep building your collection of quality content on the Steem network and your reputation number should rise.

Whales, Dolphins and Minnows

Since Steem is a meritocratic system and not a democratic one, some users have more voting power than others when curating content. This power comes from the user’s Steem Power holdings.

Users with huge amounts of Steem Power are called whales. A single vote on your content by a whale can add hundreds of dollars to your payout. Whales can calibrate the power of their votes now, so not all whale votes confer huge rewards anymore.

Users with a medium amount of Steem Power are called dolphins. One of their votes can add a few cents or a dollar to your payout.

Users with a small amount of Steem Power are called minnows. These users’ votes may add less than a cent to your payout. You will start out as a minnow unless you invest significant amounts of bitcoin into Steem Power (don’t risk anything you can’t afford to lose).

Don’t worry about these categories. Being a minnow doesn’t mean you’re doomed to fail. It just means you need to put something of value into the system, be that content curation, content creation, investment or something else.

Over time, the successful content creators will rise to the top and become the whales whereas any whales who don’t succeed at content creation will see their relative share of Steem Power decline.

What Kind of Content Should I Post?

The first thing you want to do is make an introduction blog post and tag it with introduceyourself. Take a moment to study other introduction posts by visiting the previous link. Try to include all of these things in your post:

information about what you do professionally, what projects you’re working on, what interests you;

what you like about Steem and how you plan to collaborate to build the ecosystem;

questions you have about Steem; and

photos and videos that add to or deepen the text.

Feel free to send me a second draft of your introduction post (in Markdown format). I’ll read it over and give you some ideas for taking it to the next level.

Well-done introduction posts can earn hundreds or thousands of dollars. They can gain you an initial following that will come back again and again for your next posts.

So take your time and do it well. Don’t skip this step and don’t phone it in! Think about what makes you unique. Open up. This is a community of people. The tech just makes it possible. How will you add value to the community? Put all of that and more into your post.

Don’t expect your second or third posts to earn as much as your introduction post. Take your earnings from the introduction post and consider investing them in Steem Power, tools or training that will enable you to produce more and better content for the network.

How to Build a Following

Steem is still young. This is a great time to build your following on the network. Here are some ideas for how to do this:

Post quality, well-conceptualized, substantial multimedia blog posts with well-crafted titles and copy on a regular basis, maybe even at the same time every day.

Comment on other people’s blog posts. Make sure your comments are not just a fluffy “Great job!” but instead add value, ask a question or say something original.

Join a Steemit group on Facebook or another legacy social media network and promote your posts there.

Join Steemit.chat, join the rooms that interest you and contribute regularly. Don’t just drop new posts in there though. Have conversations. Help others.

Start a project to improve Steem and involve other Steemians in it.

Figure out how to solve problems that fellow Steemians are reporting.

Develop software, tools or some other valuable resource for the Steem community.

Get creative. Look at what top creators have done on Facebook, Twitter, blogs, YouTube and other legacy social media networks. Adapt and experiment. Learn and share your results in a blog post for extra rewards.

How to Use your Wallet

You can also access your Steem wallet via Steemit.com. Click the person icon at the top right and select “Wallet” from the user menu.

Here you’ll see your STEEM, Steem Power and Steem Dollars balances. The system also gives you the estimated value of your account in US Dollars.

Each balance number has a small down arrow next to it. Click it to do something with your money (see below).

Keep in mind that every wallet on the system is public information. You can view anyone’s wallet but only interact with your own.

STEEM

With your STEEM, you can transfer, Power Up, Deposit or Buy/Sell.

Use Transfer to send STEEM to another user. You can enter a memo (which is permanently recorded on the blockchain) to remind yourself later what the transaction was for. Many transactions are recorded under “History” at the bottom of the page. Transfers are immediate and fee-free.

Use Power Up to vest your STEEM as Steem Power, which is like buying preferred stock in the Steem network. This takes effect immediately. As noted above, withdrawing your Steem Power is a slow process. SP is a long-term investment.

Use Deposit to convert your bitcoin into STEEM using BlockTrades.

Use Buy or Sell to trade STEEM on Steem’s internal marketplace.

The best use of STEEM — this is my personal opinion — is to power up and, therefore, maximize your influence and long-term gains.

Steem Power

Click the down arrow next to your Steem Power balance and you’ll find two options: Power Down and Deposit.

Use Power Down to begin the withdrawal of your Steem Power balance in 104 equal weekly payments of STEEM. You can stop this process at any time. If you power down, you will receive the first disbursement in one week.

Use Deposit the same as above, to convert bitcoin directly into Steem Power.

The best use of Steem Power — this is my personal opinion — is to hold it indefinitely in order to maximize your influence and long-term gains. If you need some cash, you can always power down for one or more weeks and then stop the process.

Steem Dollars

Click the down arrow next to your Steem Power balance and you’ll find three options: Transfer, Buy or Sell and Convert to STEEM.

Use Transfer to send Steem Dollars to another user, just like with the STEEM transfer menu mentioned above.

Use Buy or Sell to trade Steem Dollars on Steem’s internal marketplace.

Use Convert to STEEM to trade your Steem Dollars in for STEEM. This is a good method for converting your content and curation rewards to Steem Power. The conversion takes one week to happen in order to prevent certain kinds of attacks.

You can also cash Steem Dollars out to Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies easily at BlockTrades.us.

Steem Dollars pay 10% APR interest so there is some benefit to holding them, and you’re unlikely to lose much because the Steem system works to keep the value of SMD close to USD$1. Check the current value at SteemDollar.com.

How to Cash Out of Steem

If you wish to cash out some or all of your Steem earnings, one good place to do it is BlockTrades.us, where you can easily trade STEEM for Bitcoin and Steem Dollars for Bitcoin or Ether.

Once you’ve cashed out to Bitcoin, you can use an exchange such as Coinbase or an independent trader near you on LocalBitcoins.com (active in more than 13,000 cities and 245 countries) to convert your Bitcoin into fiat currency (often in minutes and direct to your bank account), if you’re unable to spend your Bitcoin directly to get the products and services you need.

There is currently no established procedure for cashing out directly from Steem Dollars to fiat (government) currency, but entrepreneur and Steem early adopter Gabriel Scheare ( @piedpiper ) is working on one. Follow him for updates.

Other Ways to Earn

Other ways to earn include validating transactions, proof of work mining and liquidity rewards (trading). I’ll cover these, and more, in the second article.

Who Benefits from Steem?

If you’re willing to be social — to share of yourself — then you can succeed in the Steem social economy.

Steem is a revolutionary breakthrough for content creators who want to get paid. Facebook, Twitter and Reddit do not pay you. They make all the money from your hard work.

At YouTube, some creators can earn a percentage of Google’s take on the Adwords ads Google presents to your viewers. You have to be earning millions of views on a regular basis, though, if you want to make good money.

Steem is different. It’s a complete economy that pays you to create value for consumers in the form of content — content you might already be creating anyway.

If you’re not interested in creating content, you can still make small amounts of money (paid in Steem Power) curating with a minimal daily time investment, since your curation rewards decline after 20 upvotes per 24 hours anyway.

Keep in mind that Steem is not just another channel for dumping generic content you already create — although you can still get paid for this, if curators decide to support you.

The best-paying content right now is media that relates to yourself, personally, and to Steem. This is already changing, with some curators seeking out content about anything other than Steem and Steemit.

So Steemit is for anyone who wants to earn money for being social in their spare time by creating and curating content: independent workers, freelancers, stay-at-home moms, students, kids, the elderly — anyone with something to say who’s willing to do it in a constructive way.

What Now?

Follow me — @georgedonnelly — to get updates on this document, serial science fiction, daily doses of positivity in my Posidose series, political commentary and organizing for libertarians, and more.

Follow the Steam Smart Podcast — @steemsmart — to get the latest insights for Steem success and to stay abreast of new developments and influencers in the Steem community.

Ready your introduction post. Produce two drafts, then send it to me. I’ll help you take it to the next level because I want to see content creators succeed on Steem.

Not a Guarantee

Note that I haven’t vetted the code behind Steem and I haven’t seen anyone else’s comprehensive analysis of the code. I’m just giving you a basic getting-started guide.

I’m convinced that Steem is genuine. But don’t risk more money or time than you can afford to lose.

If you give Steem a chance, I believe you will be convinced, too. Then you can grow your following by bringing even more users to the community. Together, we’ll grow Steem into an unstoppable platform for high-quality content where content creators can earn a living.

Conclusion

Steem is a peer-to-peer and meritocratic social economy built on a blockchain that pays you cryptocurrency to create and curate content, mostly long-form blog posts (at Steemit.com), at present.

You can exchange that cryptocurrency for fiat money and spend it on groceries, rent and travel — or earn even more by investing it into the Steem network.

Many people have already earned hundreds or thousands of dollars from their introduction posts alone. And so can you.

You can build a following on Steemit for your quality content, a following that pays you over and over again as long as you keep producing quality content that meets their needs. Quality is not just appreciated on Steemit — it’s required.

Steem is poised for growth in the near future and its architecture can grow to handle many times the traffic of Reddit.

Right now, Steemit is at the perfect stage for technology enthusiasts and visionary leaders to start building their communities for the future.

Steemit is good for you. But it’s also good for your followers, who can fund your highest-quality and most speculative work without spending any of their own money. And they can earn money, too.

Steem will only grow from here — that’s my personal opinion. By getting started today, you are setting yourself up for long-term success in the new world of social crypto-economies.

Who to Follow

Pending suggestions.

License

Feel free to copy and paste this whole, build on it, etc. — as long as you attribute it to George Donnelly (even if you alter it) and share your altered version under the same CC-BY-SA license. You can even sell this. But you may not remove this license section.

Feel free to send STEEM and SMD tips to @georgedonnelly. I also take Bitcoin at 1N39CDLnRmYXjeqQVvqN95gRh9Ey7yNBn7 and PayPal at george.donnelly@gmail.com.

]]>9153Is it Folly to Change the World?http://morelibertynow.com/folly-to-change-the-world/
Sat, 13 Aug 2016 19:47:26 +0000http://morelibertynow.com/?p=9145I want to change the world by replacing the nation-state with a voluntary order. People say that's folly. Here's why it's not.

I’ve stated my intention of bringing about a change in the world by replacing the nation-state with a decentralized, voluntary order of client-accountable organizations that provide services such as security, dispute resolution and social safety net.

The first step when you want something is to ask for it. If you don’t get it, do you give up?

No. If you want it badly enough. If you’re convinced of the righteousness of your cause, then you goddamned better well demand what it is you want.

Otherwise, I have to question what you think your purpose is in this life. There is no human being, ever, with a higher claim to your life and your rights than you. If you don’t stand up for yourself, who will?

No one.

Trying to change the world is folly, a few people have said to me. Let’s look at some of their objections.

1. I can only change my world.

I can only change my world. Me, that’s all I have power over.

True. Yet by changing yourself and your world, you inevitably change the world, since you’re a part of it.

Further, by changing your world, you inspire others to do the same. This self-perpetuating process can end up changing the whole world.

Finally, once you’ve changed your world, then what? You developed skills and knowledge that are in demand in the marketplace. Are you going to hide this knowledge? Repudiate these skills?

Of course not. You’re going to put yourself out there to have an even bigger impact. We admire great inventors, leaders and inspirers. They make great money, too. And their impact on the world is frequently beyond measure.

2. We should just accept other people as they are.

I’m me and you’re you. Don’t try to change me.

But some people are destructive assholes. They pose a threat. They need an intervention before they contradict themselves by forcibly changing someone else’s life for the worse.

Other people are crying out for help. They want to be better. They want to live in a better world. They want to change the world with you.

Are you going to ignore them?

3. We need only change our thoughts about the world in order for it to change.

Zen enthusiasts advocate meditation and tell us to accommodate ourselves to others and to just think differently. They take a longer view.

But when the nation-state’s goons are killing children with drone strikes or seizing your family’s business or taking 1/3 of your income, happy thoughts don’t really help.

Passivity is not a solution.

4. It’s arrogant to change the world.

How dare you think you know better than the rest of us how to live our lives?

Was the invention of the telegraph or the discovery of electricity arrogant? How about the invention of airplanes and the offering of daily flights to just about everywhere? The invention and use of the internet must be the height of hubris.

if you have a better product, service or idea, don’t allow yourself to be cowed by negative people, people who are threatened by change and may be possessed by envy.

Charge forward, instead, with confidence. Those who agree will accept the idea. Together you will implement it. The world will change for the better and you might even be thanked in the process.

5. New technologies will change the world automagically without us having to lift a finger.

Technologies X, Y and Z will gradually result in the obsolescence of the nation-state. No need to lift a finger.

This is another example of passivity. It implicitly denies agency and suffers from invisible hand syndrome: the idea that the actions of huge groups of people doing the things you quietly want them to do will automagically add up to the unexpected end result you seek.

It’s nothing more than fantasy play. The ultimate technology is people. A single human mind is the most powerful computer in existence.

Political change requires leadership, organization and consistency. Supplanting the nation-state is likely the most far-reaching political change the world will see in 6 millennia.

It ain’t gonna be easy.

6. Evil destroys itself. Fighting it only gives it more power.

Evil is just plain misguided. So it inevitably destroys itself. If you fight it, you just give it more negative energy and it thrives on that.

Evil doesn’t destroy itself when good people support it. That is the unfortunate case with the nation-state.

This is how we’ve always done it. We need strong cops. How else will I get my Medicaid? Where do I send my tax check? I support the troops!

Fighting evil can indeed give it additional power, which is why we need to build our way out of the nation-state, instead of trying to tear it all down.

7. Focusing so big means you’ll never have an impact.

If you want to achieve success, focus on small goals.

This is wise advice — in the short term.

Your short term goals, however, had better be adding up to a meaningful long term goal. Otherwise, you’re like a very efficiently-run ship, heading from island to island with no end destination, no end goal.

You got more work done this week than last, but is the work meaningful? Is it resulting in a greater income? Will you look back on it when you’re older and consider that week well spent?

Where is this more work leading you to? Is it just a paycheck? Are you just helping the company make more money? Or is it leading you to a happier life, more time with your family, a vacation, a comfortable retirement, to creating a better life for your kids, to owning your own business, to making an impact on the world around you?

If you can’t focus on the big picture, and make a series of more tightly-focused short and medium term plans to get you to your big picture, then you need to get better at planning.

A big goal is just a collection of small goals that add up to something at the end, like the chapters in a novel or the courses in a college education.

8. It’s just too hard.

Changing the world is a huge task. It’s just too hard. I— I just can’t.

How ridiculous is it to say that in a world where we have self-driving electric sports cars, a space station, the collected knowledge of humanity at our fingertips, material wealth beyond anything the great kings of old enjoyed and multiple groups of people working seriously towards colonizing Mars?

Why not both?

Change yourself or change the world?

Why not both?

Changing yourself is the first step towards changing the world. So why not align yourself with a larger goal? Why not give your life greater meaning? You hold beliefs about how the world should work. Are they just for philosophical fun, so you can feel superior to others? Or do they mean something to you? Are you willing to risk your time and energy to make them real?

The institution of the nation-state will be widely recognized as an outdated relic some day soon. Help me make that day come faster. Join me in the conversation as we bring about a voluntary world by 2064.

We could start a subreddit for this but let’s use a Steem tag instead. Sign up, tag your posts with voluntaryworld2064, follow me and email me about your first post so I can upvote, comment and follow you, too.

]]>Jury trials are just not happening anymore, according to a New York Times article this week.

The cost of a trial, the risk of a harsher sentence at trial and the power of prosecutors are all so great, that most of those accused of a federal crime are opting for plea deals.

What percentage of federal convictions in 2015 came after a trial? 2%. That means 98% of the 81,000 federal convictions in 2015 alone were carried out without a trial.

Why it Matters

Here’s why that matters.

Only a thin shred of evidence is required to arrest and prosecute you — much less evidence than is required to convict you.

I learned this the hard way in May of 2010 when a group of US Marshals conspired to accuse me of assulting one of them — when one of them had actually assaulted me. I was in a cage, facing 8 years in federal prison and a minimum $15,000 lawyer’s bill within moments.

Law enforcement officers face very few limits in 21st century America. They’re seizing cash, they’re collecting evidence illegally and then falsifying its chain of collection (parallel construction) and, together with prosecutors and judges, they can put anyone away for anything they like, if they want it badly enough.

And the lawyers jump to the head of the line to get their share of your life savings.

These Juries are not of your Peers

Even if you can finance a jury trial, even if you can get bail and endure the onerous release conditions, then you face the modern jury trial.

We’re told we get a jury of our peers. This is a lie. We get a jury of government employees.

Civil servants are the only people who can get paid time off to participate in a jury trial.

Ross Ulbricht Trial an Example

We saw this in the Ross Ulbricht trial. His jury was largely government employees, people primed and practiced in taking orders from other government employees, such as prosecutors and judges. People whose role is little more than to rubber-stamp the prosecution.

People have been fighting since at least before the signing of the Magna Carta in 1215 to have juries, not of nobles or some other privileged class of people, but of your peers — people similar to you who are likely to understand the kind of life you lead.

This is what qualifies juries to judge your guilt or innocence: they’re like you.

Not anymore.

Opportunities

This rise of unbridled prosecutorial power, the disappearance of jury trials and the subversion of those few remaining jury trials at the federal level opens a couple opportunities for those of us who’d like to live in a more just world.

Jury rightsactivists can have a greater impact. With fewer trials, that’s fewer juror summons events that you need to cover.

That’s if you think you’re going to convince an obedient government employee, a colleague of the prosecutor and judge, to challenge their authority.

Blockchain Justice

There’s also an opening for blockchain justice in the form of the private resolution of disputes via arbitration.

This is a long-term vision that won’t happen overnight. But here’s the theory.

DROs

Individuals who wish to safely associate with each other in a potential future can purchase insurance coverage from a Dispute Resolution Organization (DRO) (a la BitNation perhaps) that would likely conduct business on a blockchain.

The insurance would cover many eventualities and serve like the posting of a bond. Break the society’s rules, fail to honor your contracts and the injured parties will get relief from your DRO.

If you’re at fault, your DRO will raise your rates or possibly even drop your coverage – thus removing your ability to fraternize with those people who only associate with other DRO-covered individuals.

Arbitration

Disputes are resolved through arbitration, a very successful private dispute resolution method in use in the private sector today.

No one has a monopoly on providing the service of arbitration. So they can’t make you wait months or years for trial. You might be able to represent yourself.

You might even be able to pick your own judge and jury by having a say, together, with the opposing party, in choosing the arbitrators.

Even if you lose, private justice likely wouldn’t require you go to the penitentiary for long stretches. There are no minimum sentencing laws in private arbitration. You might even be able to just make reparations and pay the winning side’s court costs.

Take Action

There’s a world of alternative options for justice and dispute resolution beyond the government system — a system that has erased its own veneer of legitimacy by tilting the playing field of justice in its own favor.

It’s time we started not just considering them but actively working to make the best ones a reality.

]]>9138Get your next libertarian novel for 99c or free today onlyhttp://morelibertynow.com/get-your-next-libertarian-novel-for-99c-or-free-today-only/
Thu, 19 May 2016 17:25:29 +0000http://morelibertynow.com/?p=9119You're in the midst of an explosion in libertarian fiction, right now. After a decade without libertarian science fiction anthologies, we've actually got three new ones in the space of a couple years. And that's just the beginning. With that in mind, you have 27 works of libertarian fiction from 11 authors on sale today only for 99¢ each.

A redditor on the Libertarian subreddit asked me what the heck it was. Here’s the answer I came up with on the spur of the moment:

Novels, novellas and short stories with libertarian themes, themes of independence, human rights, non-aggression and some even with plots revolving around seasteading, the Free State Project, etc etc.

You’re in the midst of an explosion in libertarian fiction, right now. After a decade without libertarian science fiction anthologies, we’ve actually got three new ones in the space of a couple years. And that’s just the beginning.

You deserve libertarian fiction, not just to inspire you, but also to get all of us thinking about liberty using the method that is story. Logic and reason are excellent. But story is a more powerful means of communications.

With that in mind, you have 27 works of libertarian fiction from 11 authors on sale today only for 99¢ each.

And let me know how it went, which books you liked, which didn’t quite make it. And what kind of fiction you’d like to read in the future. Email me anytime at me@georgedonnelly.com.

A special thanks to our sponsors: Liberty.me and Tom Woods. Liberty.me membership is now free and Tom Woods is racking up the awesome daily podcasts. These are two class acts in our community that you want to be a part of.

By the way, I’m working on a non-fiction book sale for later this year. Authors, contact me now to be a part of it. Readers, stand by for a rare chance to stock up on libertarian books without breaking your wallet.

And go pick up a novel or anthology at GeorgeDonnelly.com/sale. If, for any reason, you’re unhappy with your purchase, email me and I’ll give you one of my books for free, no questions asked.

]]>9119The One, True Path to Libertyhttp://morelibertynow.com/the-one-true-path-to-liberty/
http://morelibertynow.com/the-one-true-path-to-liberty/#commentsMon, 16 May 2016 10:58:28 +0000http://morelibertynow.com/?p=9103Is there One, True Path to Liberty™? Is there only one valid strategy that, if diligently followed, will lead us to a stateless society? Just one, perfect path, perhaps handed down from on high, expertly cultured in the gardens of Valhalla and approved by the wise, if laughing, Buddha?

]]>Is there One, True Path to Liberty? Is there only one valid strategy that, if diligently followed, will lead us to a stateless society? Just one, perfect path, perhaps handed down from on high, expertly cultured in the gardens of Valhalla and approved by the wise, if laughing, Buddha?

Many libertarians, plurally-minded people that we are, say no. And then flash our middle fingers.

Where these folks go wrong is when they use this idea as an excuse to not consciously and consistently pursue any strategy whatsoever.

“Although I am a committed anarcho-capitalist/voluntaryist/agorist/market anarchist,” they say, “I practice no specific strategy because I don’t believe there is One, True Strategy.”

Here’s why this is nonsense.

This idea of One, True Path to Liberty is a strawman. No one is claiming such a thing exists. It’s a distraction meant to avoid a choice. It’s an intellectual pain pill to numb the ache of wanting something but notbelieving you can achieve it. It’s smug procrastination.

Selecting a strategy and testing it does not require you to believe it is the only possible one. It doesn’t even imply that.

The “There is no One, True Path to Liberty” idea is like going to college and not picking a major because you see value in all fields of study.

It’s going to the supermarket and not buying any milk because you don’t believe in choosing one brand over the other.

It’s like saying there is not just one road to Rome, so I don’t believe in using roads. At all.

It’s like saying I’m going to be a scientist but I reject the scientific method because there is no one, true, all-encompassing hypothesis.

It’s like saying that there is no, single best way for people to live their lives, so I won’t even try to find a good way for me to live mine right now.

Every man builds his world in his own image,” he said. “He has the power to choose, but no power to escape the necessity of choice. If he abdicates his power, he abdicates the status of man, and the grinding chaos of the irrational is what he achieves as his sphere of existence – by his own choice.” (from Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand)

I challenge you to pick a strategy, one of your own making or someone else’s. Write it down. Define your tactics, your habits, your practices. Commit to this strategy for a fixed amount of time, be that 1 month, 1 year or 5 years. Follow it. Document your experiences. Share your results.

Historically, people have achieved liberty through fighting, either violently or nonviolently. But today we have better paths open to us.

I’ve been building and practicing my strategy of individual power since 1999. I’m reporting on it every Friday.

This is the scientific method, or a rough approximation. Take a hypothesis, test it, report your results and repeat.

What about you? What’s your strategy for achieving your goals? What results have you documented? How have you honed your strategy over time?

We have a shared project: the replacement of the obsolete nation-state by a polycentric, market anarchist order. Do you expect to achieve it by luck? By coincidence? To sit back on the couch, potato chips in hand, and watch someone else do it on Netflix?

]]>http://morelibertynow.com/the-one-true-path-to-liberty/feed/29103The Central Role of Faith – IP Lesson 1http://morelibertynow.com/the-central-role-of-faith-ip-lesson-1/
http://morelibertynow.com/the-central-role-of-faith-ip-lesson-1/#commentsFri, 13 May 2016 22:53:06 +0000http://morelibertynow.com/?p=9096Libertarians tend to approach things from a rational, logical and fact-based place. But, paradoxically, the greatest determinant of your success in a new endeavor is how much faith you have in yourself.

Libertarians tend to approach things from a rational, logical and fact-based place. But, paradoxically, the greatest determinant of your success in a new endeavor is how much faith you have in yourself.

]]>http://morelibertynow.com/the-central-role-of-faith-ip-lesson-1/feed/890966 Reasons Agorism is A Failed Strategyhttp://morelibertynow.com/agorism-is-a-failed-strategy/
http://morelibertynow.com/agorism-is-a-failed-strategy/#commentsTue, 10 May 2016 19:14:03 +0000http://morelibertynow.com/?p=9067I’ve previously had a great interest in agorism. I’ve researched it, talked with people about it and practiced it quite extensively for a number of years. Agorism is a failed strategy. I encourage people to not pursue it at this time. Here's why:

]]>Agorism is the idea that libertarians can bring about a voluntary world by trading outside the state-approved sector, without business licensing, without paying taxes and fees or submitting to governmental approvals. This form of trade is called counter-economics, by the way.

Over time, the security, social safety net and dispute resolution institutions required for a voluntary and stateless society to work will evolve in response to market needs. The end result will be a starved state sector and an enriched marketplace. Then, dispensing with the remnants of the state sector will be relatively uncomplicated.

Agorism is a failed strategy. I encourage people to not pursue it at this time.

I won’t go into how I practiced it because I don’t owe anyone an accounting of my life and it would be stupid to risk incriminating myself. It’s not that I’ve engaged in any wrongdoing – agorism is not necessarily illegal – it’s just that there are so many laws now and bad people love to twist things.

But here’s why:

You’re Alone: Precious few other people are pursuing the strategy in any meaningful capacity. Agorism can’t succeed in the aggregate without community institutions. I formed one (Shield Mutual) and the demand simply was not there.

High Risk: Agorism can get you caged or killed. Without a tribe of people taking the same risks and working towards the same end, what’s the point? Who’s got your back? No one.

Real World Failure: In many South American and sub-Saharan African countries, black market activity is above 40% of the economy and yet strong states still rule. Clearly, it’s not as easy as counter-economic theory makes it out to be.

Ineffective: Denied tax revenue is not a significant threat to the US government, the one that most needs to be toppled. They will simply tax the conformists more, print more money and scale up police powers. See, for example, warrantless checkpoints, no-knock raids and parallel construction.

Self-Limiting: Selling things under the table limits who you can sell to and where you can advertise. It’s like dropping a pile of bricks on a seedling. You can’t grow. It defeats the very point of free enterprise, which is to grow without artifical limits.

Short-Sighted: The agorist strategy demands that we fight the state where it’s strongest. Because effective agorism inevitably violates the law, agorist defense actions happen against police and in courts of law, two places where the state is most prepared and where its “law and order” propaganda is most ingrained in the population. Any failure to mount an effective legal defense is a mid-stride abdication of the strategy. An effective legal defense is usually expensive, thus wiping out the profits gained from trading risk for reward, the core benefit of agorism. This is a fatal strategic failure.

Thus, agorists are left only with the downside of criminal penalties and risk of death and without the upside of a chance at toppling a government. There aren’t enough people doing it and, even if there were, the potential impact on the intended target is trivial.

I say this as someone who has studied and practiced agorism for more than 5 years. The idea intrigued me. I experimented with it. I researched and wrote about it.

The real challenge is to build yourself, not a movement. The cost of doing this while complying with today’s overpowered states is minimal compared to your upside. There is so much more you can do for yourself, your loved ones and your community while outside of jail and still alive.

There will always be time to stop cooperating with the state. But it has to be done with proper organization, from a position of strength and with unity because the most precious resource in the liberty community is not the collected works of Murray Rothbard but the people. You. Stay safe and keep building your power within your risk-reward limits and without falling under the spell of hype.

Greater than the concept of liberty is the concept of life. One must preserve one’s own life, enjoy it and thrive, first. Only then can we talk about maximizing liberty. That’s why they put “life” before “liberty” in The Declaration of Independence.

That said, I have no plans to form LLCs any time soon. I will though if it saves me money on payroll taxes. I won’t be getting a white-market corporate job, either. Not unless I’m broke, on the street and it’s my best option.

]]>http://morelibertynow.com/agorism-is-a-failed-strategy/feed/89067The More Liberty Now Manifestohttp://morelibertynow.com/manifesto/
http://morelibertynow.com/manifesto/#commentsMon, 09 May 2016 23:02:34 +0000http://morelibertynow.com/?p=9053It’s been 45 years since the founding of the Libertarian Party. We’ve got agorists trading on the darknet, we’ve got activists getting arrested for handing out pamphlets, we’ve got pizza delivery guys running for the US Senate and we’ve got loners relocating to the icy mountains of New Hampshire. None of it is working. No one has the answers. No one has a strategy for getting us from here to a voluntary society. If you want something new, join the conversation.

]]>I’ve been working on manifestos for a couple years now but they always seemed like unstructured whining. This one is different. This manifesto is leading to a practice that can grow the liberty community and advance us towards the new strategy we need to achieve a voluntary world.

Click on the cover image to download a PDF.

Why this Manifesto

I dream of a different world, one where human rights are universally respected, where every person has the freedom to realize their potential, achieve their dreams, provide for their loved ones, live their life according to their own vision and innovate in the service of humanity.

I dream of a world without aggression, where people aren’t enslaved, where the economic playing field isn’t tilted for the benefit of any privileged group, where people aren’t thrown in cages for growing the wrong plants or disobeying the arbitrary dictates of the ruling elite.

I dream of a world without nation-states, a voluntary world with governance structures that are directly accountable to their customers, where security, social safety net and dispute resolution companies operate in the marketplace and are thus subject to competition and consumer choice.

I dream of an end to wars of aggression, to the persecution of the weak by the strong, to the punishment of victimless crimes and to the exercise of illegitimate state power, power created and sustained through the use of aggression.

It’s time to turn that dream into a plan and a todo list. That’s what this manifesto is about.

Plan A Failed

Plan A is no plan at all. It consists of a million and one tactics, everything from growing your own eggplants in the backyard and canceling your voter registration to running for office as a Libertarian and buying bootleg baby booties with bitcoin.

It’s been 45 years since the founding of the Libertarian Party. We’ve got agorists trading on the darknet, we’ve got activists getting arrested for handing out pamphlets, we’ve got pizza delivery guys running for the US Senate and we’ve got loners relocating to the icy mountains of New Hampshire.

None of it is working. No one has the answers. No one has a strategy for getting us from here to a voluntary society.

And there is no libertarian moment.

It’s time to admit all that and start an honest conversation about growing our community in a new direction.

The alternative is another 45 years of grinding ourselves down against the the rocky outer defenses of the nation-state. And, when that fails too, then what?

The Stakes

The world is burning in the fire of aggression. Wars murder, rape, pollute, handicap and steal. Economic colonialism pushes resources into the pockets of the state-connected elite. The courts funnel any but the rich into the prison system. Cops are roving assassins.

Property is a fluid concept, subject to the whims of those in power. Security is only for those who can afford it. Justice is a joke. Liberty is an obscenity.

The schools are brainwashing centers where children are denied their intellectual heritage.

The future of humanity is at stake. The question is whether we, our children and grandchildren, will vaunt into an ever brighter future or fall back into a new dark age.

Will we have a chance at a better future, to be owners of our destinies? Or will we be the disenfranchised losers in the dystopian reality designed by the state-connected elite?

Liberty Wasn’t Lost in a Day

It’s easy to paint a depressing picture. Moral outrage comes fast but leads to nothing. Analysis and finger-pointing are what we’re good at. Imagining better futures is just the first step.

The status quo rose to power over decades. The nation-state is 60 centuries old. We can’t jump straight from here to libertopia. We have to build it up over time.

But what are we building?

The Strategy

This manifesto introduces a strategy for achieving individual liberty.

Strategies in the liberty community are rare. People have favorite tactics — laundry lists of them — but ask about strategy and everyone turns mute.

So pay attention.

The strategy of this manifesto is to build individual power. By building up your individual power, in parallel with that of an unilimited number of similar people, we will unfold a powerful group that can live in complete liberty on our own terms.

We’ll have a movement with popular, proven ideas that more people will want to be a part of.

Because you can’t argue with success.

The catch is that building individual power is hard. Here’s how you CANNOT do it.

passing out pamphlets in front of a courthouse

videotaping cops

running for office

researching, forming and articulating the most perfect opinions possible

debating your second cousin at Thanksgiving dinner

announcing your perfect opinions on Facebook

canceling your voter registration

ranting on Free Talk Live

smoking pot

dropping out

The way we’ll do it is by building a new culture. A culture, not of perfect opinions, but of increasingly improved actions. A culture where we build each other up, person by person, day by day, action by action.

If you choose to join me, we’ll build a space for like-minded men and women to thrive in.

We’re taking the high road and you’re invited. But only if you can follow the rules .

The Principles

Before we can make rules, we need principles. Here are ours:

The Non-Aggression Principle: No first use of force, no fraud. Honor your word.

Honesty: Be direct and truthful.

Independence. I don’t depend on others for my success.

Always Building. Focus on the next constructive action. Build people up. See past the conflict to the solution.

Human First. Spare the ego, heavy on the empathy.

Reciprocity. Give, and get.

This list is open to revision.

The Rules

No first use of force.

No fraud, including dishonesty.

Treat others with respect. We are shipmates on a treacherous voyage.

Support each other.

Lead yourself.

No dogma allowed, original thinking required.

No debating about anything other than what to do.

No purity testing.

No rants, moral outrage or other drama. Save it for your journal.

This list is open to revision.

The Tactics

In the quest for individual power, there is only one tactic: action.

There can only be one result for successful action: failure.

If you aren’t failing then you aren’t trying hard enough. You’re playing it safe.

The road to hell is paved with good intentions. The road to success is paved with failure.

Your Dear Leader

The concept of leaderless organizations is in vogue because so many leaders have failed or betrayed their followers. The leaderless organization is just as flawed of a concept as the leadered organization.

This manifesto offers another idea: the leaderful organization.

You are your leader. You can take these ideas and apply them on your own or with a group of people, no matter what I say or do.

Start your own group or tribe or community, online or IRL. Build out in the style you want. Mentor each other and form a network.

Be a leader. Make more leaders.

I am not your leader. You are. There are no heroes, only teams with trust.

What Now?

Plan A has failed. If you want something new, join the conversation.

The ideas that win are those that spread. The ideas of libertarianism are not spreading and we won’t change that trend by amplifying the same old talking points.

Go beyond the mediocre. Renounce the status quo. Declare yourself in rebellion to the ideology of going with the flow.

Accept my personal challenge to build individual power — your power.

The majority is irrelevant. Only what you do next matters.

Every Friday, starting May 13, 2016, I’ll publish a new lesson in individual power. Learn it, discuss it, apply it and grow.

]]>http://morelibertynow.com/manifesto/feed/29053Seeking Comment on More Liberty Now Book Outlinehttp://morelibertynow.com/seeking-comment-on-more-liberty-now-book-outline/
http://morelibertynow.com/seeking-comment-on-more-liberty-now-book-outline/#commentsSun, 03 Apr 2016 15:53:01 +0000http://morelibertynow.com/?p=9045I'm writing a book about how to get more liberty now in your own life. Please check out the early outline and tell me what I'm missing.

]]>I’ve been writing at this blog for almost 10 years now and I have more than 525 posts. I also have dozens of draft posts in various stages of completion. You’ve enjoyed quite a few of my posts. Many are thought experiments. A few are action reports. One on the Boston Lockdown you read more than 55,000 times in a few days. Others you commented on dozens of times. Many have been shared on social media hundreds of times.

Is there anything of enduring value to the human race here? I’m still working on that. But this process has been invaluable to me, to my intellectual growth. I still remember the evening in December of 2006 when I said this blog, this one I am actually sticking with. I’m going to write regularly for it and see what happens. I don’t think it’s produced even $100 in revenue. Financially, it’s been a loss. But I think there is some value in the archives.

The Purpose

I’m not writing another manifesto. I do indeed have a long draft of one on my hard drive. Manifestos, despite the days I invested into my draft, are cheap and easy. They’re basically an extended whine about how I wish the world would be. Wishing changes nothing.

The individual identification of desires and the forming and execution of action plans to satisfy those desires, however, changes everything.

This book is about not mass movements but individual transformations. Because the former is built on the latter.

The Outline

I’m sharing an early draft of my outline so you can have the chance to give me feedback from the ground stage. There are typos and incomplete thoughts. Just roll with it.

Tentative Title: More Liberty Now: Action Plan for a Libertarian Life

Introduction

You’re a libertarian. Now what? Do you get angry? Vote? Street protest? Write feverish op-eds? Form Liberty.org or a big corporation? You have this knowledge and this desire: complete freedom for the individual balanced by complete accountability. No more taxes, the freedom to put in your body what you want, cross borders when and where you please. Now what? That’s what this book is about. It’s for libertarians of all types from minarchists to anarchists. It’s a guide to getting your head straight and pointing in the direction, according to me. Your mileage may vary, but this is how I see it. If you see it differently, etc.

The hour is late but the movement is young and childish. Pay no mind to what others are doing. Build your liberty. Build it legally. We can still do that. When the time comes for group action, you will be ready.

Why Liberty Matters

Positive Sense

so you can do what you want, so opportunities aren’t closed off to you

Negative Sense

so people who don’t want to play fair, who want to tilt the playing field in their favor and who want to freeload off of your hard work can’t do it simply by capturing the central government.

Who Benefits from Liberty

The honest person, the poor person (money can purchase anything), the talented person, the third world, the hardworking person,

What Liberty is

Core principles

respect.

NAP

sovereignty

trade

empathy

Hyped Principle Wannabes

self-ownership principle

the worship of economics, esp Austrian economics

intellectual property is theft

conspiracy theories

Sovereign citizens

NRx

the constitution

defensive violence for minor infractions

indifference to others’ suffering

racism

racists will use libertarianism as a refuge, as a cover, and that’s fine. liberty means the freedom to discriminate. Get over it. You don’t get to control other people except in preventing active harm. No one owes you an opportunity. It also means you can discriminate against them by not associating with them,

How to Achieve Liberty

The strategy I advocate is an indvidual one of building personal power and options for yourself. that said, here is a full exploration of the available strategies. The difference between strategy and tactic.

Mass Strategies

Voting and running for office

Using the courts

Activism

jury rights pamphleting

open carry

it’s not a religion. It’s not about converting people.

Separatism

FSP

Somalia

Texas

Liberland

Seasteading

other separatist projects

Individual Strategies

Power: the strategy I advocate

Build personal power. build options for yourself.

Envision your ideal future.

believe it is possible. inspirational quotes. How to build belief, step by step.

No need to do special diets like keto, paleo, Esselstyn vegan unless recommended by a medical professional or otherwise indicated

physical strength. lift. regular aerobic exercise, stretching

meditative practice

fix aches and pains

every little ache or pain you feel can be fixed.

get diseases under control. think outside the box. try things like coconut oil and cannabis. how I solved my health issues

be aware of the issues. take note of them, write them down, research them, prepare action lists, try out different courses of action.

chronic knee pain

obesity

acid reflux

digestive discomforts

tennis elbow

lower back pain

Practice the Principles

Don’t get caught in principle conundrums

to use the roads or not

to pay taxes or not

to be nice to cops or not

to shop at walmart or not

Use the Tools

bitcoin

Avoid Entanglements

Fundamentalism/Absolutism

Hate and Fear

just as there is no point in hating anyone, so is there no point in fearing anyone. live in the present.

Dogma

pre-digested thoughts and conclusions

Organizations

most libertarian organizations are drama and/or privilege factories. People either manufacture personality conflicts and/or they think somehow the principles of liberty no longer apply to them because they have gained a small measure of mostly imaginary power.

Relationships

Joining forces with another of any gender or sexual preference is more likely to drag you down than to build you up. People looking for committed relationships are more often looking for something to relax into, a waiting room to entertain them until death is ready for them. Don’t get married.

Demagogues

No one is saving you, not Kokesh, Cantwell, Rockwell, Trump, Bernie Sanders, violent revolution, collapse, gold prices, bitcoin or the basic income. None of it matters a damn. Only you matter. You’ve got nothing coming. Only the actions you take have any chance of moving you toward your desired destination.

Self-Sufficiency

growing your own food is a hobby for people with time on their hands and instagram accounts to fill.

Dropping out

Out of a sense of ideological purity, people will refuse to work jobs, pursue careers, patronize certain businesses. Some will even self-immolate. Remember that you are the prize the world seeks. You have the answers. You are a store of value, even if no one else sees it. Guard your store. Multiply it. Don’t limit yourself unduly.

Debate. No point to it.

debating statists

debating other libertarians

which of the 100 flavors of libertarianism is right for me? It doesn’t matter. It’s all intellectual masturbation because it’s about having the perfect opinions. But you don’t care about that. You want the perfect actions, which depend more on the topography of the world than on your principles. Actually, you want the perfect goal that suits you, then you will enage in a series of increasingly less-misguided actions to get you there.

Fighting

don’t try to fight cops, the IRS, feminists, jihadis or anyone else. That only provokes resistance and puts you into a negative mindset. the opposite of what you need.

Online Activism.

your interest in this philosophy will just be used against you.

Agorism

attempting to live without paying taxes is sisyphean task esp when people you’re trading with are probably lying about thier payment of taxes and could end up ratting on you.

What’s Next

What do you need now? Comment here to share your ideas or email now.

Have faith that something greater is coming. Just know that it won’t happen with drug-addled in-debt couch-potato fat-asses who are unprepared and don’t believe it can be done.

Reading list of recommended books

Your Feedback

Please leave a comment about what is missing from my outline, or any ideas at all that you have. You can also email me your thoughts at me@georgedonnelly.com. Thanks in advance! Anyone who helps me gets free copies, a thanks in the book itself and, of course, my undying appreciation.

You may remember I recently published a post about a book that would plot a path to achieving market anarchism. I decided this book needs to come first. This one might even be more valuable and of more immediate use. Thanks for your patience.

]]>http://morelibertynow.com/seeking-comment-on-more-liberty-now-book-outline/feed/39045Taxation is not Theft (for the 99%)http://morelibertynow.com/taxation-is-not-theft/
http://morelibertynow.com/taxation-is-not-theft/#commentsThu, 17 Mar 2016 13:43:19 +0000http://morelibertynow.com/?p=9038Taxation is theft. This concept is central to anarcho-capitalistic thinking. And it’s wrong.

]]>Taxation is theft. This concept is central to anarcho-capitalistic thinking. And it’s wrong.

It’s not that aggression is okay. It’s not that taxation is reasonable. It’s not that taxes are the “fair” price for government “services.” It’s none of the reasons that came to your mind in the first ten milliseconds.

Taxation is not theft because tens — perhaps hundreds — of millions of people in the United States alone are not just totally fine with paying taxes but they’ll also passionately defend the practice of taxation against dangerous radicals such as myself.

Is taxation theft for me? Yes. Is taxation theft for you? You tell me. Is taxation theft for my next-door neighbor?

Not in the least.

Why not? Because he’s happy to pay.

Oh I gave him a dozenfine arguments why he shouldn’t be happy to pay. But he still claims he is. Further, I’m bonkers for disagreeing with him.

Liberty is about the individual. I don’t get to dictate to another person what they should and should not do. Because that’s collectivism. That’s a failure to respect their right to self determination — their liberty.

Therefore, taxation is not theft, not for everyone. Because some are happy about it. A lot, in fact. The attempt to dictate to them that it really is theft, when they believe it is not, is a form of collectivism and is antithetical to liberty.

Step one of libertarianism is to respect the individual and her right to make her own choices. Libertarianism is not about identifying your own personal truth and forcing that dogma on others.

Therefore, objectively, taxation is not (always) theft.

That makes the concept “taxation is theft” an intellectual fail.

On a strategic level, “taxation is theft” is an example of an obsolete marketing pitch. It only resonates with the few hardcore ancap faithfuls — those for whom the utility of hearing it is lowest. And most of those people pay taxes day in and day out, despite their intellectual “fidelity” to the cause.

The insistence on promoting “taxation is theft” shows an egotistical tone-deafness, a catastrophic failure to listen and an abysmal lack of creative thinking on the part of libertarians.

“Taxation is theft” is like running George McGovern or Barry Goldwater for president. It’s like opening a new broadcast TV station or building a steel mill on the South Side of Chicago in the 21st century. It’s like going door to door to sell typewriters, film cameras or rotary phones to people who own MacBooks and iPhones.

These are all stupid ideas, borne of a failure to listen to the marketplace.

The marketplace of ideas is telling you that “taxation is theft” isn’t working. It isn’t convincing anyone. Its success rate at inspiring tax resistance or less oppressive tax laws is so low you couldn’t measure it if you tried.

If anarcho-capitalists, market anarchists and other libertarians with new ideas for Government 2.0 are to meet with any success, we need to evolve our pitches over time. We need to invent new concepts, present them to the public, listen and adjust the pitch by discarding non-working ideas or evolving them until they work.

Libertarians are facing fifty years of irrelevance because we are lost in the inner worlds of Lysander Spooner and Murray Rothbard. We’d rather be right in our own minds than relevant to the minds of the world. We’d rather drink craft beer and ridicule the stupid statists as they burn than lift a finger to build a freer world.

We talk a good game about markets and laugh at failed products without realizing that our own ideology is a failed product the markets have rejected.

Worst of all, we’ve given up. It’s plain as day when you hear libertarians talk about how we’ll never have liberty in our lifetime. It’s as obvious as the sky when you see people pushing the same talking points that offer the same non-traction — such as “taxation is theft.”

If you want to change that, leave your ego at the door and let’s talk about how to move forward in the comments.